Designing, Implementing, and Reflecting on a Literacy Lesson for Diverse Learners
Literacy Lesson Submission Instructional Plan Template Candidate’s Name: LaKessa Cooks Setting/Grade Level: Sixth Grade/Resource Subject(s): Literacy School: Franklin Jr. High School Date: June 14, 2015 Theme/Title: Prefixes and Suffixes 1. PLANNING LEARNING OUTCOMES/GOALS What will students learn? The students will learn how to break apart words into prefixes, root words and suffixes. The students will change the root word to make a different meaning. 1. PLANNING LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students will be able to identify the root word, prefixes and suffixes of word in text. Students will be able to manipulate the meaning of words by changing prefixes and suffixes. 1. PLANNING BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY Remembering Understanding Applying 1. PLANNING STANDARDS ADDRESSED • Common Core State Standards F.4.3.A: Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context. RI.4.4: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area. 1. PLANNING REAL WORLD CONTEXTS Students who are learning English can often confuse their native language grammar and sentence structure with the English structure. Seeing beginning and ending parts of words will help students read all the way through the word for better fluency and comprehension. When writing, they will be able to use the correct form of the word. 1. PLANNING COLLABORATION The ELL teach provided input for this lesson since the small group will be all ELL students. She liked the idea of the lesson since it is important to teach language structure so students can switch back and forth between their native languages purposefully. She suggested provided them with a list of prefixes and suffixes with their meaning to use as well as providing picture cues of the root words. 2. METHODOLOGY LEARNING EXPERIENCE/ ACTIVITY List the activities, including how you activate background knowledge and bring closure to the lesson. Please make sure you can demonstrate student engagement throughout the lesson. Introductory/Anticipatory Set  In previous lessons the students learned about prefixes, root words, suffixes and how we can use Latin words to understand the meaning of new vocabulary. This lesson will be with a small group of ELL students to help them change the meaning of words by manipulating the prefixes and suffixes. Start by reviewing prefixes, root words, suffixes. Use familiar words to practice highlight the prefix in yellow, the root word in blue and the suffix in green. Students will create an anchor chart with a list of root words and the various forms to show how the meaning of the words change. Put the words into context of a correct sentence will reinforce the different meanings. (I walked, I was walking, He walks, etc.) Building/Applying Knowledge and Skills by engaging students in their learning While students are reading their text, they need to underline the words that they notice have prefixes or suffixes. The first paragraph will be done together and then the rest can be read together in pairs. Students will keep a list of the words they find. Later they can partition the word by highlighting the different parts. After the words are pulled apart there will be time for the students to manipulate the form of the word and talk about how the meaning is now different. Provide a list of prefixes and suffixes for the students to use http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/vocabulary/pdf/prefixes_suffixes.pdf. Extension/Enrichment/Transfer or Generalization of Knowledge that engages students in their learning   After the students have read the entire text, manipulated the words in differ ways, it will be time for a shared writing and editing paragraph. The students and the teacher will write a paragraph about the information from the text. The teacher will start with the topic sentence and the students provide the rest. Write down everything they say exactly. Then, using what they know about prefixes and suffixes, the group can go back and attempt to edit their paragraph so it make more sense. Synthesis/Closure  Finish off the lesson by adding to the prefix and suffix anchor chart the examples from the activity. Once again discuss how when parts of the words are changed, it make a new meaning. 2. METHODOLOGY INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES What instructional strategies/methods will you use? Constructions Nonlinguistic Representations X Cooperative Learning Peer Editing Discovery Practice/Drill X Discussion/Questioning Practicum Experiment Problem Solving Field Study Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers X Graphic Organizers Reflection/Response Generating and Testing Hypothesis Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition Homework and Practice Reporting Identifying Similarities and Differences Role-playing Independent Learning Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback Journal Simulation Laboratory Summarizing and Note Taking Lecture Viewing/Listening/Answering Library Research Other (Please specify): Why did you choose these instructional strategies/methods? Working cooperatively in groups will allow the students to share their ideas and confirm their thinking by discussing their ideas. This will be especially helpful for English language learners. They will be able to use their native language if necessary to help activate their background knowledge about the root words. Keeping a list in a graphic organizer will help them refer back to their learning when needed. How will you group students for instruction (individual, small group, large group, or whole class)? In previous lessons the whole class participated in a similar activity. This lesson will be reinforcing the concepts with 5 ELL students with a text at their instructional level. 3. MATERIALS Materials Used T = FOR TEACHER S = FOR STUDENT Previous class prefix and suffix anchor chart Yellow, blue and green highlighters Chart paper and markers for interactive writing Student text: Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber (NF) 4. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION ASSESSMENT OPTIONS Application Exam Objective Test Concept Mapping X Observation Parent Evaluation Contract Peer Evaluation Checklist Self-Evaluation Performance Inventory Portfolio Quantitative Scale Rating Scales Rubric Scored Discussion Journal Problem-Solving Assessment Other (Please specify): Why did you choose this assessment(s)? How will the chosen assessment(s) help you determine if your students met the goals/objectives? In your answer, provide a rationale for each assessment you plan to use and its connection with each of your goals/objectives. Working with and listening to the students talk about their activity will give the teacher a chance to monitor their understanding. I will be able to view their work and see if there is any misunderstandings about how the meaning of the words change when manipulating the prefix and suffix. Monitoring in a small group allows more detailed observation and better intervention. How will you use this assessment data to inform your instruction? During the lesson, I will be considering two things to see if students need more support. First, will be if students can combine the prefixes and suffixes with the roots words in a way that make sense. Second, students who are struggling with putting their new words in the correct context will need extra support. 5. LEARNERS DIFFERENTIATION How will you differentiate curriculum to meet diverse student needs? The text that is used in this small group was chosen intentionally because it is at the student’s instructional level. Since the lesson is about prefixes and suffixes, I wanted to a text that was easily accessible for the activity. The text used with the whole class was a grade level text. How will you differentiate instruction to meet diverse student needs? The use of graphic organizers, anchor charts, color coding and picture cues for roots words will help these students make connections to what they already know in their native language. By proving them with a list of common prefixes and suffixes with their meanings, there is one more step to scaffold them to work independently. Other students have knowledge of what common prefixes mean such as “un-“, “non-“, etc. How will you differentiate assessment to meet diverse student needs? Students learning English benefit from small group discussions. Students may work in groups during this activity. Their knowledge will be assessed individually based on the application of the skill. Without the small group discussion the students may not be able to express themselves fully. 5. LEARNERS DIVERSITY How will you address the needs of diverse students (e.g., IEP, 504, readiness level, cultural/linguistic background)? There are two who have very little English language skill in my class this year. I have planned with ELL teacher to get support with the content we are learning in class. They have been introducing vocabulary and concepts before, during and will after this activity. This support will be essential for these diverse students to learn the content. 5. LEARNERS MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AND LEARNING STYLES What multiple intelligences will you address? Visual/Spatial X Verbal/Linguistic Logical/Mathematical Bodily/Kinesthetic Musical/Rhythmic X Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalist Existential 5. LEARNERS MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AND LEARNING STYLES What learning styles will you address? X Sensing-Thinking Sensing-Feeling X Intuition-Thinking Intuition-Feeling Sharing Literacy Lesson Design and Implementation Through Professional Collaboration After implementing the lesson there were some areas that were very successful for the students learning. Reflecting on lesson and finding ways to improve will lead to better student learning. Lesson Design Each lesson needs to be designed and implemented in a culturally responsive manner that takes into account what teachers know about their students. When teachers know their students well, they can better meet their needs. In the lesson plan that I implemented, I was able to focus on directly teaching vocabulary and sentence structure because I know these specific students struggle with comprehension because of the way English is structured compared to their native language. Having to remember different structures of languages is challenging and confusing. This lesson helped to address this issue by identifying proper grammar and how words meanings are changed with prefixes and suffixes. By directly teaching the differences between their native language and English, they will become more comfortable switching between the two. If I did not assess my students’ language use and get to know them as learners, this lesson would not have been as specifically target towards a meaningful skill. The one area of concern that I have regarding this lesson is how much information is being given to the students. Each time a prefix or suffix is attached to a word, it changes the meaning. If students have a hard time understanding the root word, which is often a noun, understanding the different form of the word will be challenging. For example, one student did not clearly understand the difference between “walked” and “walking”. I also realize these students do not have the background knowledge of certain common prefixes such as “un-“ or “non”. These needed to be directly taught and could not be relied upon as information they can use to decode word meanings initially. Lesson Implementation The part of the lesson that was most successful was color coding words to separate the parts of the words. Isolating the root word helped students to understand the context better. Providing a list of common prefixes and suffixes with their meanings was very helpful. This helped students identify them. When they did, they were able to check their list to understand how it changed the meaning of the root word. This also led to discussion about what the words meant. Having the anchor chart of different forms of the words within contextual sentences helped the students see the differences. They were able to see how changing the word made the action in the past or future. We also talked about how you would change words in Spanish to make the same meaning. They realized it was very different from the way we were doing it in English. When we were writing the paragraph together, students already were using their prefix and suffix list to double check their wording. Since this happened, there was far less editing than I expected at the beginning. Later, when the lesson is not fresh in their minds, we can pull those lists and anchor charts out to edit their writing. When I do this lesson again I would like to incorporate technology in the application and as an extension activity. There are numerous games and software available to reinforce changing word meanings with prefixes and suffixes. For now, I will be using these as a refresher and reteaching when needed. Students could also write their paragraphs with a word processor or make their anchor chart in a table. But they would not be as accessible as an anchor chart on the wall.